Catherine Pastron does everything from dipping strawberries in vats of melted chocolate to hauling boxes of supplies off the trucks that pull up to her store and kitchen on Detroit Road, and it’s not unusual for her to work 14 hour days. She’s a candy maker and self-taught chocolatier. It started as a hobby but when she lost her job four years ago, she decided to turn her 20 year love affair with cocoa and sugar into a business. Now she earns a living with her handmade truffles, chocolate coated fruits, pretzels, and potato chips, and hefty half pound Rice Crispies bars.

Her personal favorite and the confection she’s built her reputation on are her sandstone crabs- an irresistible combination of caramel, roasted and salted pecans, and chocolate. The odd name honors the city of Amherst, once known as the sandstone capital of the world and the site of her of her original shop. She outgrew that space and moved to a much bigger place in Avon last spring. But she’s still got the sign out at the new location and a second one in Westlake that first brought her notoriety: “We have crabs.”

A woman with a sense of humor, Pastron says she’s toying with the idea of getting t-shirts imprinted with her logo on the front, and on the back the message “Give crabs to the one you love.”

Many of her customers are gift shopping for someone special. “But they come back in, heads hanging and looking sheepish,” she says. “They have to buy more because they ate all the chocolate themselves.”